Question: The arithmetic sequence $(a_i)$ is defined by the formula: $a_i = -5 - 3(i - 1)$ What is $a_{13}$, the thirteenth term in the sequence?
Explanation: From the given formula, we can see that the first term of the sequence is $-5$ and the common difference is $-3$ To find $a_{13}$ , we can simply substitute $i = 13$ into the given formula. Therefore, the thirteenth term is equal to $a_{13} = -5 - 3 (13 - 1) = -41$.